Egypt: Rima Fakih – What does religion have to do with it?

Rima Fakih, an Arab Muslim immigrant, won the Miss USA Pageant Sunday night. There are those who considered her an Arab victory, those who considered her a Muslim disgrace, and those who dug up her past.

Punning on her name (Fakih means religious jurist in Arabic), Hassan El Helalicalled her

It does not surprise me that an Arab girl or even a Muslim girl participates in a beauty pageant contest , as any community and society we got different views and different faces like any society in this world. Of course I do not put much hope on a girl that depends on her external beauty and fabulous body to change a bloody stereotype about the Arab and Muslim community yet regardless of whether Rima Fakih is a silly shallow girl who dances on a pole and wishes for a world peace or not , this young girl has become another Arab American Muslim icon.

Here is an icon for the advent of modernizing the Muslim world. She embodies everything sharia and the Islamic world deplore — free women. Burn those burkas, baby, and come on in. The water is just fine.

Given some of the comments and emails I’ve been getting about this post, it seems necessary to explain that I do not think Miss USA is some kind of role model for American girls or for American culture. What I find positive about Rima Fakih is that she goes against everything Muslims want women to be — and with all the ways that Islam oppresses women, free will, free women, free people. what could be wrong with that?

On the positive side, one idealist commenter compared her to Barack Obama. Another went so far as to say her win shows the “real face of Arab Americans, not the stereotypes you hear about.” Ah, yes, not the burqa–the bikini! Trading one stereotype for another is not progressive, but whatever.

Many in Arab-American community, as well as many American Muslims,supported Fakih’s win. While some Muslims voiced their concern over the message it sends, ironically, it’s the American Christian right who’s angriest.